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Reporting Time Zone Behavior

Jennifer Trower Updated by Jennifer Trower

Read Time: 4 mins

By default, Sonar reports use the System Time Zone defined in your system settings. When viewing a dashboard, you can change the time zone using the dropdown to alter how time zone-enabled date fields display and which records fall within a date filter.

Some reports that rely on advanced data transformations always use the system default and cannot be changed.

Permissions

Before getting started with the feature, your user roles will need to be adjusted to account for the permissions required to use the Reports feature.

If you're a Super Admin, you already have full access, and no changes are needed. To learn more, see the Roles and Permissions article.
Permission Details
1. View generated FCC Form 477 reports: allows you to generate a FCC Form 477 report.
2. Create a FCC Form 477 report: allows you to create a FCC Form 477 report.
3. View account reports: allows you to view account-category reports (delinquency, churn, account status).
4. View financial reports: allows you to view financial-category reports (Aged Receivables, Invoiced Revenue, Daily Payments, Disbursements).
No report license is required to view default reports.

A Viewer or Editor license is required to apply filters, drill into details, or export results.

How Sonar Determines the Time Zone for a Report

Sonar reports use the System Time Zone configured in your system settings as the default for all date and time fields in reports.

This is set under Settings > System Settings and applies across the instance.

The System Time Zone affects:

  • The display of dates and times in report results
  • Which records fall within a report's date filter
  • The day boundary used for grouping records by date

Changing the Time Zone on a Dashboard

When viewing a dashboard, you can change the time zone for that session using the time zone dropdown in the dashboard view.

Changing the dropdown will:

  • Alter the display of any time zone-enabled date fields in the report
  • Alter which records fall within a date filter, since date filters evaluate against the selected time zone

This is useful when you need to view a report from the perspective of a different region (for example, an operations team in one time zone reviewing data for accounts in another).

Changing the time zone in the dropdown only affects your current session view of the dashboard. It does not change the System Time Zone for other users or for scheduled report deliveries.

Reports That Cannot Have Their Time Zone Changed

Some reports rely on advanced data transformations that are pre-calculated using the System Time Zone. These reports will always use the system default and cannot be changed using the time zone dropdown.

The most common example is the Accounts Receivable Reconciliation report. Other reports with similar advanced calculations behave the same way.

If you try to change the time zone on one of these reports and the numbers do not update, this is expected behavior — the report is using the System Time Zone as designed.

Common Scenarios

“Two users ran the same dashboard and got different totals.” One of the users has likely changed the time zone dropdown on the dashboard. Confirm both users are viewing the dashboard in the same time zone selection.

“My scheduled report total doesn't match a manual run.” Scheduled reports always run in the System Time Zone. If you manually changed the time zone dropdown when running the report, your manual results reflect a different time zone than the scheduled delivery. Re-run the report with the dropdown set back to the System Time Zone to match.

“I changed the time zone but the report didn't update.” The report is one of the advanced-transformation reports (such as Accounts Receivable Reconciliation) that always uses the System Time Zone.

What You Can Do

  1. Identify your System Time Zone — open Settings > System > System Settings and review the System Time Zone field. This is the default for all reports.
  2. Confirm the dropdown setting when comparing report results between users or sessions. Different selections produce different results.
  3. For consistent results across users, agree on a standard time zone (typically the System Time Zone) and confirm everyone is using it when comparing data.
  4. For advanced-transformation reports, accept the System Time Zone as the source of truth — these reports are not designed to be re-evaluated in alternate time zones.

When to Contact Support

Contact support if:

  • The time zone dropdown is not appearing on a dashboard where you expect it.
  • A non-advanced-transformation report does not respond to dropdown changes as described.
  • You need help determining whether a specific report uses the System Time Zone exclusively.

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